LOCAL HEALTH service managers in north Dublin have been warned they will have to pay personally for any spending on recruiting agency staff and overtime which exceeds a strict new monthly cap on such payments.
In a formal instruction circulated to consultants and heads of departments at Connolly Hospital Blanchardstown and to local managers in north Dublin, the Health Service Executive’s regional director of operations for its Dublin North East district, Stephen Mulvany, has ordered that no more than €500,000 per month can be spent on agency personnel, overtime or outsourced domestic and household costs.
This move, which represents a reduction of 37 per cent on current expenditure levels in these areas, forms part of a plan aimed at scaling back a potential deficit of €10.7 million at Blanchardstown hospital by the end of the year.
Local managers have been told the executive will not pay for any spending over the new ceiling.
The instruction to managers states: “Once the cap is reached any overpayment is a matter for relevant local managers to pay personally”.
Managers have also been warned any breaches of the limit would be considered “a serious disciplinary matter”.
Local managers have been told that the introduction of the cap on agency staff and overtime spending cannot compromise patient safety.
However, they have been told that “it may be that volume of services and/or access to services are impacted”.
Local managers have also been instructed that they have no authority to “permanently close any significant patient/client services”.
However, “temporary service curtailment (hours or days of week) or suspension to live within resources may [be] considered”.
It is understood union representatives, at a meeting with senior HSE national management last Friday, strongly objected to the suggestion in the circular that managers could be held personally liable for overspending.
Regional management of the executive in Dublin North East have estimated the spending cap could generate savings of nearly €1.5 million by the end of the year.
However, regional management has warned that even after these savings and further national and regional financial support to protect patient services, the hospital is still facing a potential deficit of €5.8 million.
Local managers have been told they will have to identify additional cost-reduction measures.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health yesterday backed controversial moves by the HSE to introduce a virtual blanket ban on recruitment for the moment in a bid to tackle a potential deficit of €400 million nationally by the end of the year.
Posts such as social workers and therapists, which until now have been exempt from the Government’s recruitment moratorium, are included in the HSE measure.
In a letter yesterday the Impact trade union asked Minister for Health James Reilly for clarification on whether there had been a change in Government health and child protection policy in relation to the recruitment of staff such as social workers, physiotherapists and occupational therapists.
A spokeswoman for the department said last night that it understood the HSE had paused recruitment until September when it got its financial reports for July.
She said the HSE was required to live within its official budget and there was no prospect of additional funding being made available.
Impact national secretary Louise ODonnell said hundreds of practitioners currently at various stages of the recruitment process now seem unlikely to be hired to fill vacancies the Government said should be filled.